A goal from Fabian Delph gave Manchester City a 1-0 win against Steaua Bucharest (6-0 on aggregate) in their Champions League playoff match on Tuesday.
Joe Hart started in what is expected to be his last game for the club as Pep Guardiola made eight changes from Saturday’s league win over Stoke and called his final match ‘a special night’.
‘That was a really special night for me,’ Hart told his club’s website.
‘I’ve had a lot of good nights in football but that was a really nice night for me. I’m really happy that Fabian scored and he’s won us a game in the Champions League.
‘This is a special place for me and it’s a place I love to be. Situations occur in football and we’re men, we get on with it. I really appreciate the people of Manchester City and it turns out they appreciate me. Tonight I played for Manchester City and I enjoyed every moment of it.
‘We’ve got a top manager that the club has wanted for a long time and he’s going to have his opinion on things.’
Delph, who scored a second half header, felt his side did enough on the night to secure the victory.
‘We went in to the game as though we needed to win. It was 5-0 in the first leg but they sat behind the ball and made it difficult and tried to counter on our mistakes. We changed it at half-time and we managed to get the goal and see it through.’ said Delph.
‘We’ve got a great team and a great squad as tonight as shown with the number of changes we made. I’ll be watching the draw on Thursday and feeling pretty comfortable with whoever we’ve got.’
The Blues go into Thursday’s draw for the group stage of Europe’s elite club competition.